Reno County, You Have a Choice!

If you live in Reno County and specifically in House District 104, you may have thought that you had no choice about who your Representative would be in the 2019 legislative session.

Well, now that’s not true!

Incumbent Representative Steven Becker lost his bid to once again be the Republican nominee in the August Republican primary by nine votes and since no Democrat has filed for the seat Becker’s loss meant that, without some miracle, voters would have no choice in the general election this November. By nine votes in a partisan election, the rest of the voters would have been denied any voice in their representation at all.

But sometimes miracles do happen.

After much soul-searching and with lots of pleas from his friends, Representative Steven Becker has announced he will seek re-election via a write-in campaign.

Those who care about public education could not be happier. Becker was defeated by an extreme conservative challenger whose only campaign strategy was to accuse Becker of being an independent thinker – more specifically, Becker served as a Republican elected official who would not promise to march lockstep with the failed Brownback agenda.

For two terms Becker distinguished himself as one of the most thoughtful, independent voices in the Kansas House. Becker voted for what was good for his district and the state of Kansas and not what was demanded of him bySam Brownback or the anti-education, anti-government crowd supported by Americans for Prosperity and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.

Becker supported public education; he supported public school educators; and he supported sound economic and tax policies that are fair to all Kansans and allow the state to provide for good schools, safe roads, and quality care for seniors and those who need a helping hand.

That’s why Steven Becker was deemed a friendly incumbent legislator by the Kansas NEA Political Action Committee. And that’s a designation that continues into his write-in campaign.

This November, all residents of Kansas House District 104 will have a choice – a choice to continue moving Kansas forward with a good school finance plan and sound tax policy or to return to the failed and reckless policies of Sam Brownback.

The Kansas NEA Political Action Committee supports the re-election of Steven Becker to the Kansas House of Representatives and urges all friends of public education to write-in the name of STEVEN BECKER for House District 104 on their ballot in this election.

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Voting is the cornerstone of democracy. That’s why it always amazes and frustrates us that so few people eligible to vote actually cast a ballot. In 2014, the last time Kansas was electing a Governor, only 50.8% of registered voters bothered to vote. Think about that! For every two Kansans, one did not vote! Just 25% of voters (half of those that bother to vote) could decide your future.

Are you satisfied to let half of all Kansans registered to vote to decide what that future will be? Every election is important, but this year’s race for Governor offers us a particularly sharp contrast. Will the next Governor return to the Brownback tax policy or continue to move forward? Will the next Governor honor the school finance plan passed by the legislature or repeal it? Will the next Governor fund highway maintenance or steal for KDOT?

The decision is up to us. And it should be up to ALL OF US!

No matter where you sit on the broad political spectrum, please vote. Let’s find out once and for all what the MAJORITY of Kansans want, not just the half that shows up.

You can vote early by mail. You can vote early in person. You can walk into your polling place on November 6. But however you do it, please support our democracy. Please vote.

Your Source for Voting

https://www.ksvotes.org is your one-stop-shop for voting. Go there to check your registration – make sure you haven’t been purged from the voter files. Go there to register to vote if you aren’t now registered. Go there to request an advance voting ballot if you’d like to vote from home. In your pajamas.

There’s a bonus for early voting!

Campaigns run on money. And no campaign treasurer wants to spend money they don’t have to spend. That’s why, once advance voting starts, a good campaign treasurer will check the voting rolls daily to see who in that district has already voted. If your name comes up as having cast a ballot early, they take you off the mail list to save money. So you see, if you vote early, you can stop most, if not all, of the nasty campaign mail from filling your mailbox! Now that’s a deal worth voting early for!

I Vote for Public Education!

Some candidates will say they support education, and they’ll do just about anything to fool the public into thinking they mean it. Often they’ll trot out a teacher who will say great things in support of the candidate, hoping that you and I don’t look at their record. Take the race between Sharice Davids and Kevin Yoder for Congressional District 3 as an example. While Yoder has found a retired teacher to appear in a commercial, Davids has the backing of educators throughout her district. And as a KNEA/KPAC recommended candidate, Davids has been through a rigorous interview process conducted by currently licensed classroom teachers who determined that hers is a candidacy that truly represents support for public education.

Or look to the Governor’s race for another example. Secretary of State Kobach makes splashy headlines for what sounds like a pro-education policy, but when you investigate his rhetoric you discover that his promises- like his funding to the classroom slogan- actually will result in cuts. Why? Because he’s not telling you that he believes that only certain very specific things qualify as necessary for “classroom instruction.” Everything else like support services, technology, and specialists would only be funded at the local level- meaning that a child’s opportunity would depend a whole lot on their zip code.

If you would love to vote but just aren’t sure who the pro-public education candidates are, we’ve got just the thing for you!

The KNEA Political Action Committee (KPAC), made up of KNEA members from across the state, have done the hard work of interviewing and analyzing the candidates for public office. They have identified which candidates are the best on issues related to our public schools, our school employees, and our public school students.

Two of the congressional races are listed, but two are not and there is no recommendation in either the Republican or Democratic Gubernatorial races. There’s actually some good news at least for some of these races. So let me take this column to explain our thinking!

Gubernatorial Races

KNEA does not have a recommendation for the Democratic Primary. The reason is simple.

The Democratic candidates have completed and returned questionnaires to KNEA and no one candidate stood higher than the others on our issues. Every Democratic candidate for Governor is a strong supporter of our public schools, our students, and all our school employees.Additionally, the two candidates who served in the Kansas Legislature – Senator Laura Kelly and former Representative Josh Svaty – both had excellent legislative voting records on issues of importance to KNEA.

The race would appear to be a tight one between Kelly and Svaty. Former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer also enjoys significant support. Public schools, our students, and Kansas educators would be well-served by any of these candidates and we are hard-pressed to elevate one above the other.

We urge our Democratic members to look closely at all these candidates and consider their positions on public education as well as their individual positions on issues of importance to each of you personally.

And as you cast your ballot, consider yourself lucky to not have a bad choice when it comes to supporting public education.

As for the Republican Primary, it would seem that only one candidate has any interest in being considered by KNEA – Jim Barnett.

Barnett is the only Republican to return a questionnaire to KNEA and his questionnaire reflects general alignment with KNEA positions regarding public education. Barnett has also continued to reach out to teachers and KNEA members throughout his campaign – including contacting and meeting with KNEA local affiliates and UniServ Councils – seeking their input and sharing his perspectives. While his KNEA voting record as a State Senator was not stellar, he appears to have studied the issues more closely and adjusted his positions in his time out of the Legislature. Unfortunately, Barnett’s candidacy is an extreme longshot while Governor Colyer and Secretary of State Kobach go head to head for the nomination.

We know where Colyer and Kobach stand on some issues thanks to reports in the press. Here, for example, both the Colyer and Kobach campaigns express support for private school vouchers and tuition tax credits.

In speaking to the Wichita Pachyderm Club, Kobach again expressed strong support for vouchers, in addition to reductions in education spending and grading schools A through F. The Wichita Eagle opined on this back in May.

Republican educators need to understand that only Jim Barnett was willing to participate in our recommendation process. Colyer and Kobach have stated positions contrary to KNEA positions on a number of issues and we have no confirmable information on the positions of other Republican candidates. Jim Barnett submitted a questionnaire and has held a number of press conferences and press releases that indicate strong support for public education, children, and educators.